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Just started playing and already hacked!
bartoni33
Member RarePosts: 2,044
Title says it all, sorta.
Bought game in 2005 but didn't like. No phishing EMails or whatnot in that time. Came back around Oct. of 09 for a month, changed to BNet for silly pet, quit and started getting a few EMails a week. Came back last month with a few Co-workers along and started enjoying the game. EMails come about 5 or 6 a day. Played last nite from 9PM to 4AM this morning. Went to work at 1PM today, got home at 10PM to find a Real EMail from Bliz saying my account was locked for 3 hours because of Gold Selling spaming at 8PM! What should I do? Try to log on and see what the damage is? This has never happened before to me. TIA
EDIT: I never let anyone else use my account, but I do have 3 addons for WoW but I got them through the Curse Client. Is that safe?
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
Comments
Don't know, have you tried logging into your account? I get absolutly loads of e-mails that look authentic, however the e-mail they go to i have never used for any of blizards games at all (use another) so just delete all these authentic looking ones, whatever you do, do not click any of the links on these e-mails, go through manually (just in case).
Wish there was something around though that stopped all the in game spam as spammenot and spambot no longer function
and am unaware of any other anti spam/gold selling shut them up add-on.
P.S - Curse is usually safe yes.
Yes I tried but it says I'm locked out of it. I have about 20 minutes left on the ban. Thing is I just bought a 2 month Gamecard just now when I got off work! I'm scared to use it now LOL
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
1. For the sake of argument, let's say that you use a strong password for WoW;
2. For the sake of argument, let's say that you keep all of your software up-to-date;
3. For the sake of argument, let's say that you use a security suite that is up-to-date and regularly scan your PC;
4. For the sake of argument, let's say that you don't frequent risky sites (i.e. 4chan and porn);
5. For the sake of argument, let's say that your Curse password is different from any other password you have:
C. NO. IT IS NEVER SAFE TO DOWNLOAD 3rd PARTY SOFTWARE TO MODIFY YOUR GAMING EXPERIENCE AND IT IS ALSO AGAINST THE EULA DESPITE BLIZZARD'S HYPOCRITICAL STANCE!
I have a strong anti-add-on stance and for the last two months I played I used a DPS and GearScore add-on from the Curse Client. I was hacked a few months later and I deserved it for not only violating the EULA but being stupid enough to do so. If you follow points 1-4 in the argument I make for you and do not use any add-ons you should be perfectly fine. You don't need add-ons to play and anyone who tells you that you do is someone you don't want to play with. Then again, seeing Blizzard's stance on add-ons (see one of my previous posts on the subject for links) and their behaviour in the past few years, you shouldn't support them by playing their games anyway.
(1)TL:DR must be your way of saying that thinking hurts. Then again, this may explain why it looks like you responded to the post without using your brain.
(2) It's not about community, is it? You just have nothing better to do.
To be honest I have bought gold from various wow related sites. I have had my accounts hacked before. Once I was hacked because of a phishing email.
The thing is I realize now when I get dozens of these emails about my account that I was the reason I get them. I have since switched my email attatched to the WoW account and I NEVER get any WOW related spam on that email address. The original email addressI still get plenty of gold spam and phishing emails.
I guess my point is, unless gold sellers and account hackers are just randomly sending emails to billions of people then there HAS to be a way that they have gotten your email address. I really doubt it is through curse because I use curse all the time and the auto downloader and I have not had any problem with them. Unless curse is giving out email address to gold spammers and account hackers. The easist way to find out if they are is to sign up with a brand new email only used just for their websiste and see if that email address starts to get WOW realted spam.
Every problem has a root and and a path to that root. Someone somewhow either used your email address to buy gold once, or somone somehow sold your email address from some website you signed up to that is wow related or somone in Blizzard itself is giving out email address to hackers.
The Stranger: It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid.
1. Honestly my PW prolly is not as strong as it should be.
2. always
3. yes and yes
4. first no, second....
5. rather not say
C. I get what your saying. I use Auctioneer because its easier IMHO, QuestHelper because..it helps with quests and I HATE the map system, and something that compares a looted item with what you have on.
So yes, what you were thinking was true, it's all my fault. But just because I MIGHT have screwed up somewhere does not mean that ALL the recent hacks were their fault also.
EDIT: It's now 40 minutes since my account should have been unlocked but its not. Does it usually take awhile to unlock? I'm starting to worry now.
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
2. For the sake of argument, let's say that you keep all of your software up-to-date;
3. For the sake of argument, let's say that you use a security suite that is up-to-date and regularly scan your PC;
4. For the sake of argument, let's say that you don't frequent risky sites (i.e. 4chan and porn);
5. For the sake of argument, let's say that your Curse password is different from any other password you have:
C. NO. IT IS NEVER SAFE TO DOWNLOAD 3rd PARTY SOFTWARE TO MODIFY YOUR GAMING EXPERIENCE AND IT IS ALSO AGAINST THE EULA DESPITE BLIZZARD'S HYPOCRITICAL STANCE!
I have a strong anti-add-on stance and for the last two months I played I used a DPS and GearScore add-on from the Curse Client. I was hacked a few months later and I deserved it for not only violating the EULA but being stupid enough to do so. If you follow points 1-4 in the argument I make for you and do not use any add-ons you should be perfectly fine. You don't need add-ons to play and anyone who tells you that you do is someone you don't want to play with. Then again, seeing Blizzard's stance on add-ons (see one of my previous posts on the subject for links) and their behaviour in the past few years, you shouldn't support them by playing their games anyway.
Are addons really against Blizzard's EULA for WoW, even though they have pretty strong support for addons? That seems silly. Not that Blizzard doesn't do all sorts of ridiculous things.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
Blizzard's stance on add-ons is very clear. They are perfectly ok with add-ons. In fact, their game is intentionally designed as add-on-friendly. What you can't use is an add-on that allows you to be away from your keyboard. What developers can't do is make an add-on pay only nor can they request donations in-game. The recent changes to the EULA is VERY clear on these things and add-ons are not only accepted, but practically encouraged by Blizzard.
"Our intent isn't to discourage the use of add-ons. Our intent is to allow players who don't want to use add-ons to be able to get by without. The advances we made to the default UI with things like Equipment Manager and the new Quest Map are with that direction in mind. Some players just like add-ons or are very particular about specific functionality. That's cool. They can continue to use what they enjoy." - Ghostcrawler from here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=22050171282&postId=220461574775&sid=1#45
Now on to the op's question. I had a friend get hacked twice within a matter of days and I am not aware that she used any add-ons. The second time Bliz was very unresponsive to her pleas to get her account back. At that point I bought the authenticator. If I'm not mistaken it is $6.50. If you want to play WoW I'd say $6.50 is a pretty low investment cost to basically never have to worry about getting hacked again.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
If you have a smartphone blizzard probably has an authenticator app for it. I got my authenticator app for my google phone attached to my account. Also every month I create a new randomized 12 - 13 digit password. I just randomly make up a pw with numbers and letters put it on a yellow sticky and stick it on my monitor. It is a pw just for WoW, seeing as I dont play WoW on any other computer.
Also 1 email for my game accounts, another 5 or 6 different email accounts for everything else.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
And, btw, I've been using add-ons for about 2 years and only had the authenticator for about 1. I never had any problems. If you are downloading add-ons from Curse, WoWAce, or WoWInterface, especially the ones that come highly recommended (like Auctioneer) you should be perfectly fine. The idea that a popular add-on like auctioneer, carbonite, xperl, etc would be just a key-logger in disguise is preposterous. The developers of these add-ons have been working on their programs for years and are strong members of the community. If you have a key-logger on your system it didn't come from one of these add-ons.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
Did your e-mail look like this? I deleted the links in the e-mail, wouldn't want someone to lose their account.
I just got the e-mail today
For one I never had an account name WOW1, and I haven't played it since March.
English speaking customers: Please refer to the start of this mail
Para los clientes españoles: Por favor vayan hasta el fin de este correo electrónico
***Notice of Account Closure***
Account Name: WOW1
Reason for Closure: Terms of Use Violation -- Exploitative Activity: Abuse of the Economy
This account was closed because one or more characters were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for "real-world" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.
Even if this behavior is the result of a third party accessing the account instead of the registered user (for example, a friend, family member, or leveling service) then the account can still be held responsible for the penalty because of the impact it had on the game environment.
We've found the above behavior is many times directly related to groups responsible for compromising World of Warcraft accounts; we take these issues very seriously. To better understand our position against exploitative activity and the risks involved, please review this article:
The exploitative activity that took place on this account violates the World of Warcraft Terms of Use. We ask you take a moment to review these terms at Any recurring subscriptions on this account have been suspended to prevent further monetary charges.
For any disputes of this action, please visit the Exploitative Activity FAQ and Contact page here:
Regards,
Blizzard Entertainment
I get various emails throughout the day in my Spam mail section. Some of them look authentic and legit, others are laughable. I did get invited to the SC2 beta today and that was delivered directly to my inbox like it should be.
I used the Curse Client, and so did my wife, for a few months and we never had any account issues. My brother has gotten hacked at least 4 times in the last 3 months, tho. And twice was with an authenticator -- I personally can't figure that out.
My brother had his account hacked twice due to have third party software from a private WoW server. There could be many reasons you had your account hacked but one of those reasons isn't because of an addon. If you download addons from trusted sites then you are !00% safe as they are always checked.
I believe all official Blizzard emails do not contain direct links to their website, so you should always manually type in the website.
I use Badboy and have for a long time. It works really well. It stops everything except the whispers.
I have just sent it to support at WOW, who knows maybe they can do something heres to hoping.
My friend had his account hacked a few days ago, and the blizzard rep told him that the developers from GearScore put some sort of keygen in the addon/zip with the intention to steal info.
I doubt its true but hey, people are saying crazier things.
Yes that was the one, though it got my name right. I also got one saying that my password was reset because of the 3 hour ban. But I didn't use the link in the EMail, I used the one I got bookmarked that I typed myself.
Here's the other one I got:
Battle.net Account - Password Reset
We have reset the password for the Battle.net account associated with this email address. To choose a new password, please click the following link and follow the instructions:
https://us.battle.net/account/support/password-reset-confirm.xml?ticket=F61F75F77099DF2E46238E58385B7FBCAB5630309E4576307BB086D8F6BE646B
If you did not request the reset, it is possible that this Battle.net account has been accessed by someone not authorized to do so. If you notice issues with the Battle.net account or associated games after logging in with your new password, please contact the appropriate support department for assistance immediately: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/30791
Please remember that it is your responsibility to keep your login information confidential. You may not share access to the account with anyone who is not expressly permitted in the Battle.net Terms of Use and the Terms of Use for the games you play. You are also responsible for every use of your login information, whether you have authorized it or not.
COMPUTER AND ACCOUNT SECURITY:
Account compromises can occur when a player shares login information with an unauthorized third party or plays on a computer that has a virus, Trojan, or keylogger. In a case where you believe your account has been accessed by an unauthorized party, we would like to suggest that you review the following pages for various security awareness tips (as well as how to recover in-game items or characters) before you log back into the account:
- Security Checklist: http://us.battle.net/security/checklist.html
- Types of Account Thefts: http://us.battle.net/security/types.html
- Account and Computer Security: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/30794
- What to do if the Account has been compromised: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/30796
- Account Security and Recovery FAQ: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/30791
- Email Address Security: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/30814
We highly recommend adding a Battle.net Authenticator to an account as it is the highest level of security we currently offer. For more information, please visit: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?tag=BLIZZARDAUTH.
Billing and Account Services can be reached directly at 1-800-592-5499. Players in Australia and Singapore should call 1-800-041-378 and 800-2549927 respectively if unable to connect via the first number. Our representatives are available seven days a week, between 8:00AM and 8:00PM Pacific Time. Alternately, our support team can be reached via email at billing@blizzard.com.
Thank you,
Blizzard Entertainment
Those 2 were the only ones to actually get in my In-box. all the other ones I get daily get sent to my Spam box. Did I just screw myself?
EDIT: It's been almost 2 hours now since I should be able to login but my account is still locked. Plus, because I used Paypal to start the sub last month it just auto-renewed on me before I had a chance to put in the 2 month card I just bought! God I'm having a shitty day!
EDIT REDUX: After re-reading tryson's post my EMail is a little different :
English speaking customers: Please refer to the start of this mail
Para los clientes españoles: Por favor vayan hasta el fin de este correo electrónico
Account Name: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Account Action: 3 hour suspension and password reset
Reason for Action: In-Game Chat Policy Violation - Advertisement and Spamming
This suspension happened because one or more characters on the account were identified exchanging, or contributing to the exchange of, in-game property (items or gold) for ""real-world"" currency. This exchange process negatively impacts the World of Warcraft game environment by detracting from the value of the in-game economy.
To prevent further harm to the game and the account you use, the account has been suspended for 3 hours and the password was reset. You do not need to reply to this email, as the account will automatically become available again once the 3-hour suspension period has ended. It may take up to one hour for our system to generate and send the new password. If you have not received a password within one hour of this message's delivery, please check your Spam, Junk, or Suspect Mail folders. If you are still unable to locate the email containing your new password, please contact us using this form: http://us.blizzard.com/support/webform-us.xml or use the password recovery function on https://us.battle.net/account/support/login-support.xml.
Account compromises are usually the result of the registered player of the account sharing his or her login information or playing on a computer that has a virus.
Please remember that it is your responsibility to keep your login information confidential. Any account that is registered to your name may not be shared with anyone except for one minor, of whom you are acting as a parent or guardian. You are also responsible for every use of your login information, whether authorized or not.
For additional security tips and information, please visit the following sites:
- Account Security: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21131
- Unauthorized Account Access Policy: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20460
- World of Warcraft Account Security: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/20572
If you are looking for an added layer of security, we currently offer the Blizzard Authenticator, an optional device that can help prevent unauthorized account access. For more information about how the Authenticator
works or how to add one to a World of Warcraft account, please visit the Blizzard Authenticator FAQ at http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/24660.
Please be aware that if unauthorized access to this account continues after the recovery process is complete, it may lead to further action against the account. For more information, please review the World of Warcraft Terms of Use (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.html).
Regards,
Customer Services
Blizzard Entertainment
www.worldofwarcraft.com
Bartoni's Law definition: As an Internet discussion grows volatile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.
That letter you just copied looks legit and the links appear valid. The scams usually will have good looking links but something is always a bit off. They also won't have as many links as this one. If you got this email, tried to log in to your account, and found that your password had been changed then you got hacked and this is probably a valid email.
It is getting tough to keep WoW accounts secure. I honestly think that with 11 mil players hackers are probably getting lists of user names from somewhere and just running password programs. What are they called? The ones that just start inputing random letter combinations and such? It's probably actually easier to get user names now with battle.net signups since it is your email address that is your user name. It seems Bliz doesn't want their users to have secure accounts without buying the authenticator. Conspiracy theory, anyone? At any rate, I do recommend authenticators to everyone. WoW is the biggest kid on the block so it draws an awful lot of criminals to it.
As long as we're trading stories of hack attempts - My favorite ever was an in-game message that said, "You have congratulations! You have receive prize of 500 gold of the Blizzard! Go to www... to receive." I had a good, long laugh over that one. Poor guy tried, though.
I was pleasantly surprised when I went from Apprentice to full 5 star Elite in under 2 months. I was pleasantly surprised again when I went from Elite to just barely Hardcore in 2 weeks. Apprentice, here I come!
When I checked the auto-reply from WOW this was at the end of it.
Billing & Account Services
Blizzard Entertainment
www.blizzard.com
Notice the link name at the bottom, very different from the one that was on yours and mine(it said the same as yours)
Of course it's differnet now that I think of it, the company is blizzard not worldofwarcraft.
peace guys
Thats called NATURAL SELECTION
You do realize that this says more about you then anything else right ?
Sinister Savant MMORPG Community
I'ma go with if you got hacked, you did something you wern't suppose to.
Never believe any emails you get about WoW, if you have a question, actually call them. And do everything over the phone with em. Second, as long as u keep ur account safe, you won't have to worry about being hacked again.
Third. Who ever doesnt use Add-ons because they are afraid to get hacked, is a freaking moron.
call to blizzard answer to secret question and explain situation. dont need to ask here what to do.
thats what i did , called them and everyhting worked out.
cheers